BharatQR Code Interoperable Payment Acceptance Solution Launched

RBI's Deputy Governor R Gandhi on Monday launched BharatQR code in Mumbai, an interoperable and low cost payment acceptance solution, developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), MasterCard, and Visa.

With BharatQR, the consumers will not need to scan different quick response (QR) codes at the same merchant provided by the different payment networks. The merchants will only need to display one QR code at the storefront or through the acquiring bank's mobile application. The interoperable payment acceptance solution works with MasterCard, RuPay, and Visa accounts.

Gandhi added that granting licences to payment service providers cannot be a 'tick box exercise' as entities will be entrusted with money, and so fit and proper criterion is important.

"There is an implied suggestion that this (payment) sector needs to be freed of licensing mechanism and once a set of criteria are fixed, any number of entities meeting those criteria should be allowed to function. We differ from this idea," Gandhi said.

"Such a free entry may not be appropriate for payment industry. We must remember that the payment service provider is entrusted with money and therefore 'fit and proper' criterion is of utmost importance and consequently, free entry based on tick box exercise will not be right and it can pose a risky proposition to the system as a whole," he said.

Gandhi said there is a misconception that non-bank entities are being discriminated as compared to the banking entities in the payment system arena.

He clarified that RBI, as a payment system regulator, has opened up the space of non-bank entities and given them access to various payment systems.

Written with inputs from PTI